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Sm1
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Location: Ames, IA
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 Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 11:39 pm Post subject: Personalized Gnome Menus |
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Okay so from what I've gathered from searching, it seems that wine decides to create .desktop files under ~/.gnome/apps. This is all fine and dandy, and you can easily copy these to /usr/share/applications and they will work.
Now what happens when you have a multiple user system, and everyone wants their own personalized set of applications to show up. Say Jill installed DVD shrink, and IE. Now say that Billy Bob installed Photoshop, and despises even seeing the IE icon show up anywhere on his profile.
If you copy everyones .desktop files over, you get into a bit of a problem. If Jerry doesn't know much about what he's doing, clicks the Photoshop icon showing up in his profile, and it doesn't work. Now you and I both know that its because of permissions in trying to launch an app installed in Billy Bob's profile. Jerry doesn't know what to think and gets frustrated easily.
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Now this old post that I found in 2003 indicated to try to manually add ~/.gnome/apps into /etc/gnome-vfs-2.0/vfolders/applications-all-users.vfolder-info.
I did that, and no help, so I reverted.
Another post indicated to try Smeg. Smeg actually shows the apps that are in the ~/.gnome/apps folder! I go back and check the menu, and it was just a tease. They only show up in Smeg.
So where do I really need to add a line so that ~/.gnome/apps is actually used to populate the menu listing? |
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Lokheed
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Joined: 12 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 2:17 am Post subject: |
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The easiest way to do this is add all the desktop files in /usr/share/applications and then use the Gnome Menu Editor (GNOME 2.12.X and up) to show the ones each user wants. Since the menu editor will just add an entry under each users ~/, each user will only see what they want. Easy to manage and easy to change or alter.
Thats what I would do. Just right click on the Main Menu icon to get to the Menu Editor...
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Sm1
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| Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 3:18 am Post subject: |
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| Lokheed wrote: | The easiest way to do this is add all the desktop files in /usr/share/applications and then use the Gnome Menu Editor (GNOME 2.12.X and up) to show the ones each user wants. Since the menu editor will just add an entry under each users ~/, each user will only see what they want. Easy to manage and easy to change or alter.
Thats what I would do. Just right click on the Main Menu icon to get to the Menu Editor... |
The only problem then is what if two users have the same app installed? Two links show up? ( They would point to different binaries )
Something just seems wrong with that philosophy, especially if a user installs an app and doesn't have permissions to write to /usr/share/applications. They have to go and get the person with sudo rights to be able to add to the menu? |
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Lokheed
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| Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 5:28 am Post subject: |
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The only problem then is what if two users have the same app installed? Two links show up? ( They would point to different binaries )
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I dont get it? Why would the same app point to different binaries? If Tom and Jane both want XMMS installed, then they both enable XMMS to show up in the menu. If Jane doesnt want it to show up, then she can just uncheck the checkbox and not have it in the Gnome menu. There is only one .desktop file on your system. This method is not going to be making more .desktop files for different users. This method will only change what a user sees in their menu, nothing more.
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Something just seems wrong with that philosophy, especially if a user installs an app and doesn't have permissions to write to /usr/share/applications. They have to go and get the person with sudo rights to be able to add to the menu? |
How would a user get permission to install an app and but not have permission to access /usr/share/applications? You need root access to install programs, so therefore you would be able to access the .desktop files...not that they have too. No one is going to be altering .desktop files. They are simply going to be checking and unchecking check boxes in the Menu Editor that comes build in with GNOME. Its that simple
What you are talking about is just aesthetic. Programs installed can all be accessed by everyone no matter what, but for a point and click user, the menu is used to launch them right? This is what you want to manage and my proposition is simple and effective. You just want to manage everyones Gnome menu right? So right click on the Main Menu icon and choose Edit Menus from the list and check the boxes of the items you want to show up. Basically this is what your users will be doing. They dont need to access or modify any files. So if Tom installs Gnomebaker and Jane doesnt want it in her menu, then she unchecks the box beside Gnomebaker...it is now gone for her and her alone. Maybe I am not being clear but I cant find much of a fault with my proposal.
Here think of it this way. You are putting a config file in a users ~/ to either show or not show a program in their menu. Nothing more.
G'luck if you use it or not... 
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Sm1
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| Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 6:11 am Post subject: |
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I think I didn't specify the fact that I was refering to WINE. When you install a WINE app, its what creates the links in ~/.gnome/apps.
I'm sorry if this is turning into a flamewar between us. The reason the two binaries would be different is because when of the .desktop files that WINE spits out.
For example:
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supermario@portablemario:~/.gnome/apps/Wine$ cat Google\ Earth.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Google Earth
Comment=
Exec=wine 'C:\\Program Files\\Google\\Google Earth\\googleearth.exe'
Terminal=false
Icon=/home/supermario/.menu/icons/Google Earth.xpm
Type=Application
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Wine creates that for me, and another user who installed Google Earth would have it under their own locations. |
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PaulBredbury
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Joined: 14 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 6:34 am Post subject: Re: Personalized Gnome Menus |
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| Sm1 wrote: | | Now say that Billy Bob installed Photoshop, and despises even seeing the IE icon show up anywhere on his profile. |
The simple answer to this mess is to tell Billy Bob to STFU - it's not a software problem, it's a people problem
Or, have the people who want IE, install it into their ~/.wine directories themselves. Taking this idea to its conclusion, don't install any wine apps in /usr/share - have the users install all of their wine software into ~/.wine |
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Lokheed
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| Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:56 am Post subject: |
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| Sm1 wrote: | | I think I didn't specify the fact that I was refering to WINE. <snip> |
Yeah that totally changes everything. You arent dealing with any standard at this point, but a program. Oh and those arent binaries, they are .desktop files. Think of them as config files...
Dont worry, its not a flame. I just couldnt see the problem with my solution, but there is one, it doesnt work for managing WINE. Anyhoo, sorry couldnt have been of help. G'luck
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Desktop Environments
